


encounter with the beast

by kyloben10



Series: attack on titan fics [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-25 15:07:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30090948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyloben10/pseuds/kyloben10
Summary: Miche splits off from his squad to deal with a small group of titans, but gets more than he bargained for when he is approached by an unsettling abnormal.
Series: attack on titan fics [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2214075





	encounter with the beast

‘Tell me what that weapon is called. That thing on your waist, that flies around.’

The enormous abnormal sitting in front of Miche was moving its lips, which were eerily humanoid in their structure, but he was finding it impossible to believe that the titan was... talking? The stench of titans salivating around him was becoming overpowering, and he had definitely hit his head a few times as he was knocked off the building - he must just be making it up. No, but not only that - the stationary, unnaturally passive ring of titans standing around him seemed to indicate that they were following the larger titan’s command. But that couldn’t be possible. Though... if he was right, Hange would have to know about this - this knowledge would revolutionise every discovery they had made about the Titans so far. They had never considered the possibility of Titans being... completely sentient?

‘I’m sure we speak the same language. Perhaps you’re simply too frightened.’

Abruptly jolted from his thoughts, Miche’s eyes darted back up to lock on the titan, which was regarding him with a passive, emotionless stare - perhaps a ghost of a smirk on its lips. A sharp contrast to his own expression, which he knew must be etched with lines of terror and excruciating pain. And it was a terrifying sight - Miche had been unsure about the hair-covered titan ever since he had first caught scent of it making its way towards the Scouts from the wall. It was like no other abnormal he had ever seen, swinging its disproportionately thin limbs in the off-balance gait of a child - but its throwing aim seemed to be accurate to a fault. He thought about how he had broken off from his squad minutes ago, telling them that ‘he’d buy them some time’. That he’d ‘just deal with this group of Titans’ and ‘return back as soon as he could’. 

How wrong he had been.

‘Ah, well. I suppose I’ll just take it back with me.’

The titan began to reach one skeletal hand towards Miche, and the scout was barely able to muffle a yell of anguish. His leg, or the remainder of it - part of his leg had been torn off horrifically by one of the smaller titans - meant that he couldn’t stand to challenge the titan as he usually would, and was forced to resort to clawing his way backwards desperately, the mud could under his fingernails, his eyes shut against his inevitable fate. If he could only get to the nape-

-however, instead of curling its spindly fingers around Miche, the titan had reached instead for his ODM gear, lying discarded mere metres away following his fall from the building. The expression on Miche’s ashen face morphed from paralysing terror to an unappetising combination of repulsion and utter disbelief. And with that, the bestial titan drew itself up to its full, towering height, revolved around slowly and began to stroll in the other direction, with the unbothered tranquility of a villager walking to the market on a quiet morning.

However, something about the situation didn’t sit right with Miche. The circle of stinking titans around him was still motionless, and by sitting here defenceless he would be effectively giving up, resolved to his fate. Images of Nanaba, god, Nanaba, crossed his mind as he began to attempt to draw himself back to a standing position. Words he had said to her, back when he was so much more stoic, foolishly confident - ‘Humanity’s Second Strongest’. Words he told Nanaba to live by -

As long as we continue to fight, we are not beaten. 

And he couldn’t let her down, not now. Not any of them, even. When he had joined the scouts all of those years ago he had promised to dedicate his heart to humanity, and he was starting to realise that it was now or never.

Mustering all of his remaining energy, Miche let out a guttural roar, immediately alerting the leisurely retreating titan. The colossal figure turned its head briefly, dismissively, looking Miche up and down as if he were titan shit. 

‘You can move now.’

Confused at first about what the titan had meant, the stampede of too-large footsteps and the scent change from more passive to blindly ravenous titans soon indicated Miches’ fate. His despondent attempt to escape was futile with a ruined limb - soon he was lifted like a child’s toy and pulled in four different directions by the group of titans like a rack. Desperate shrieks fell upon deaf ears as his flesh was slowly and brutally ripped apart. Thinking of Nanaba in his last moments, eyesight becoming hazy as he felt his body beginning to shut down - he hoped that despite his fate, she would continue to live by those words. More than anything, he hoped that she would be okay... by herself.


End file.
